Technology

For years our site was hosted by WordPress. It ran there very successfully and I was happy that it did not require much maintenance from me. The cost for the service was also good. After a couple years, we did get our own domain name. Still the cost was not an issue. Over time, I … Read moreWhy did we update our site?

Working from home for yourself is not like working in an office. You have to set aside time to work on your business without distractions. Sounds simple, right? My, there can be plenty of distractions to get you off track. Housework, children, the door, pets, family, phone, social media, the list goes on and on. … Read moreDaily Method of Operation

You need one. You need to remember the people you want to share with, the people that have ordered from you, the people that you simply want to further the relationship with. Can you remember all their names, their important dates, (birthdays, shipping dates, start dates)? Do you worry that you will run out of … Read moreLearn how to Build a Memory Jogger

Sound hokey, I thought so too until I learned from my experience and coaches. A Vision Board is just putting your goals and dreams on paper and looking at it every day. Your dreams and on paper are key. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always set professional goals. Less often personal goals. These goals were … Read moreThe value of Vision Boards

I’ve always thought having a connected Home would be cool. We used to go to a lot of show homes and how intelligent they were impressed me. I saw controlling alot of features from a panel. Nice, but costly and not that convenient. But the cost of a new build with that technology always struck … Read moreOur Connected Home

We’re assisting a client in the search for new Campground Reservation software. Do you have experience with one? We’d love to hear about it. Were looking a a system for a medium sized full service campground. We’ve looked at: Microsoft Excel Astra Campground Master Reserve America Let’s Camp

I really became interested in social media when I retired and my wife decided to become a distributor for Juice Plus+. When I was working as a Deputy Chief in Emergency Services I was aware of the value of social media in getting information out. It wasn’t until I started curating and creating content for Della that I really got my feet wet.

I started out using Avid Studio on the PC to create video content. I loved it. The problem I had was that I didn’t use it every day so that I practically had to listen to the training video with every use. A smaller issue was that I had to go back to my home office and create the video before publishing it. Still I loved the program and still use it.

I’ve learned about Pinnacle Studio on the iPad. Its what we use now to create, edit and post content. We can go from start to finish in 30 minutes. You can’t beat that kind of immediacy.

I’ve learned that content we create does a lot better with the Facebook algorithm’s than curated content. The results for our own video and photos are much higher than content we curate. I remember one superb post that got very little coverage because I used a photo I got from a site.

We have experimented with Facebook Advertising. For a very small cost, you can dramatically boost the number of people that see your post. The lesson I’m working on is creating a boosted post that spurs a call to action.Here’s an example of our video’s:

Hootsuite. We use it to monitor our personal and fan pages on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Instagram, Google+. I like it but I’ve not much experience with other programs. Occassionally, it looses a stream which is irritating. I don’t like that the iPad version does not have the same capability as the browser version.

Avid Studio for the PC. Full of features, longer learning curve.

Pinnacle Studio for the iPad. Enough features for on the fly editing and posting to the Internet. Its what we use now for content creation.

Canva. It’s what we use to create images for our posts. After all, posts with images are read. Without an image, the post is less interesting

IoGrapher Hardware for the iPad. We use a frame with handles that the iPad fits into. The frame allows for lenses, microphones, lights and a tripod to be attached.

Filmic Pro. That’s the program running on the iPad in the photo. It assists with 3 different zooms, focusing and lighting.

We have a couple of issues remaining:

We’re not used to being on screen presenters. Showing the energy and excitement we feel is harder that we thought. Still we’re getting better. It helps to have a solid belief in what your doing.

Developing engaging content.

Advertising. No doubt that using Facebook boosts will get you in front of more people. We don’t yet know if that will translate to more site and page visits.

We’ve put the R.V. away for the winter. I’ve been spending time updating and preparing for next March. I’ve hooked up the WiFi Ranger Go and Elite routers to our home wireless network. They work beautifully delivering speeds nearing 18 meg. Even my old laptop performs well when connected. It appears a good Internet connection … Read moreUpdate to Wifi Ranger review

We recently assisted Jayena Collins present Cochrane Healthy Living with Michelle Ball. Our goal is to promote healthy living around the world. We’ve found that good nutrition has enriched our lives and drastically improved our retirement. Both Della and I are now healthy enough to enjoy our retirement. Consequently, we feel the need to share … Read moreOur latest event and Winter in Alberta

We’ve been using a Wifi Ranger Elite for the past month. It fulfills its promise and provides a secure network within our RV that we can use for our personal and Juice Plus+ business applications. It took a while for me to get a handle on all the options in the interface. I’m still not … Read moreWifi Ranger Internet Reciever Review